Szczesny: no Champions League would be a disaster

Wojciech Szczesny says that Arsenal finishing outside the top four would be a ‘disaster’ and the club is experiencing its most difficult period since he joined.

Dropped to the bench for his fellow countryman Lukasz Fabianski for the last two games, the younger of the Poles heads off on international duty and spoke, before the Swansea game, to Gazeta Wyborcza about life at the Arsenal and the race for the Champions League spot.

In typically forthright fashion, Szczesny pulled no punches about the current situation.

“It is halfway through March and we’ve lost everything,” he said. “There are still 10 matches left to save the club against the humiliation of all times. It would be disaster not to be in the top four and without Champions League next year.

“We have the ten most important games in our careers. We are going through the most difficult time since I came here.”

Although he’s been dropped Szczesny continues to see his future at Arsenal, and when asked if he could see himself playing for another club said, “Theoretically yes, but mentally absolutely not. I am too happy to go somewhere else. I believe the Arsenal will start to win again.

“I believe in the philosophy of the club. I have a debt to pay here for the club, I owe them. I just do not want to go anywhere else. As long as they want me here the is no ‘somewhere else’, and I have a contract until June 2015.”

Let’s hope the shock of being benched for a guy who is out of contract this summer refocuses him and he can become the keeper we all hoped he might be. In the meantime, Fabianski holds the gloves.

I’d go ever further, myself. I hope they will reach the Euro League final, lead 2-0 until the 88th minute at which point Walker (because I absolutely fucking hate that overrated arrogant slimy-looking cunt) will score two completely avoidable own goals and then in extra time they concede three more goals and lose.

Additionally, they will finish 6th in the league due to not winning any of their last nine league games thus ending their hopes for Europe next season, resulting in Bale leaving for a good team so next season we will all see what a completely mid-table team they are without him. Thus ends the purple patch they go through every 15 seasons or so.

Walker’s been talking crap about knowing “the secret to stopping Bale”. That from a guy who couldn’t even stop Stewart Downing. Anyway, Fulham seem to know that secret too. I think their tactic of not lofting 35-yard backpasses towards their own goal was an improvement on Walker’s theory though.

He was being interviewed! Would you rather he start complaining about being dropped to cause CONTROVERY? Or perhaps you might lie it if Arsenal players stared at people interviewing them in stony silence?

I’m going to catch FC Basel vs Sp*rs here next month. Even though I want the scum to have as many Thursday night excursions as possible, I cannot for the life of me imagine myself hoping for them to win!

As much as i have enjoyed our last 2 defensive performances and particularly against Bayern, Fabianski made some fairly decent (if not expected) saves. However, i feel that some people are getting slightly carried away about how ‘amazing’ Fab has been. I’m really not knocking the guy but i think that the way that we have defended as a team has been much improved in the last 2 games, dropping back and letting both Bayern and Swansea come at us, soaking up that pressure and breaking with pace and decisiveness on the counter attack.

I still think that Szczesny is a far superior keeper to Fabianski and i think that Wenger believes that too. Perhaps it is a tactic from Arsene to let his players know that nobodys place is guaranteed or perhaps Szczesny is just not in the right frame of mind to play in these season defining games.

I may be wrong but if you asked me if i wanted Fab to be our number one next year, i’d say ‘most certainly not’. He hasn’t done anything wrong at all in the last 2 games that he has played but has not been fully tested either, which is definitely a testament to the way that we have defended in those matches.

There is still talk of us bringing in another keeper in the Summer. The likes of Reina and Valdes have been mentioned and i think this type of competition is needed for Szcz. Does he really believe that Fabianski will keep him out of the team on a regular basis? I’m not too sure. Would he think that if Reina or Valdes was our other keeper? Very possibly.

Either way, i have been really impressed with the way we have defended in our last 2 games and hopefully the penny has finally dropped that if we want to claim our top 4 spot then being organised and defending well is a good base to build from.

[…] Another example, yesterday I got an email from a reader who translated an interview from the Polish press with Wojciech Szczesny. He talked about how Arsenal had to avoid humiliation and make sure they they finished in the top four. There were some comments about his own future too, but nothing too groundbreaking as the interview happened before the Swansea game. We ran the story on Arseblog News. […]